Menu

Blog Archives

One of the keys to a successful interactive experience is providing a little something for everyone. Typically, members of the audience for an interactive installation will vary in their desire to invest time and attention. An individual may have a keen interest in…

Leap Motion Path is a Second Story lab experiment exploring the use cases for the Leap Motion controller in the digital animation field. Our objective was to create a tool to capture 3D motion that could be used within an…

At Second Story, we all share a passion for making and crafting. Our collaborations have taken lots of different forms, from a robot that prints tattoos to a floor-to-ceiling interactive sculpture to an imaginative birdhouse. We thrive in the vibrant…

As has been pretty well documented, we recently had the opportunity to work with Intel’s new Galileo development board to create a neat little prototype lighting product/experience for the Maker Faire Rome. The technology story is a compelling one, as it highlights…

You hear these phrases so often in design and development circles they have become clichés—”get real fast” and “fail early, fail fast, fail often.” As ubiquitous as these sayings have become, there is a reason for this: They’re true. Here, we’ve f…

If you haven’t seen the 1952 movie Singin’ in the Rain, well, I envy you, because you can only see it for the first time once. Aside from being one of my favorite films, I’ve found that to be a great look at the collaborative creative process, esp…

Recently, my colleague Scott Smith posted some thoughts on authorship and narrative control, in the context of our work. Stories and their trajectories are a big part of exhibit design, but a visitor brings unpredictable perspectives and patterns …

The final review for the summer design studio I’ve been writing about took place a few Wednesdays ago, at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland. The review event itself was enjoyable and engaging. The event was attended by jury members from…

Creating an interactive 3D map of disturbance zones and vegetation at Mount St. Helens When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, it didn’t just blow up. There was a series of discrete, linear geologic events, one leading into another, that added up t…

This year at Second Story one of the things we’ve been challenging ourselves to do is “get real faster.” In creating interactive experiences we’ve always created proof of concepts and prototypes, but this year we’re trying to do this earlier in ou…